New Delhi, Aug 21, 2017: India’s rich food heritage deserves a dedicated platform and with this underlying philosophy, India’s Food Authority has convened various stakeholders including Government bodies, food industry, celebrity chefs, food historians, columnists and bloggers. By bringing them all together, an effort has been made to create a systematic framework for preservation and promotion of India’s culinary heritage and food culture and rediscover and perhaps revive of some of this rich and diverse heritage in a sustained manner and bring its ‘goodness’ back. More specifically it will focus on food safety, hygiene and wholesome food. As a significant step in this direction, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India in collaboration with YES Global Institute has organized a National Conclave on “Indian Food Culture featuring the theme - Let’s bring the goodness back”.

Inaugurated by Shri Sanjeev Kapoor (Padma Shri and Celebrity Chef), the national conclave was well structured with thematic discourses, presentations and panel discussions with eminent and thoughtful opinion leaders on sharing international initiatives for promoting our regional cuisines, documenting and archiving of traditional foods and culture, implementing food safety aspects, providing local food guides and authentic culinary experiences and finally the role of food industry towards promotion of traditional foods in our country.

A systematic framework is being co-created in association with a cross section of stakeholders for a robust ecosystem of traditional food culture in India with immediate focus on five important pillars including:

National Recipe Archive: A dedicated online portal ‘FOODCAST’ designed to preserve, restore and disseminate traditional recipes of our culinary heritage with special emphasis on seasonality and natural goodness. States will participate and enrich this database and repository for a holistic representation

Food Hubs: Strategically located food outlets run by local food vendors that can offer a complete regional cultural experience encompassing food trails, local cultural elements and signature cuisine of the region demonstrating Indian diversity

Food Streets: Every city has a food street which is unique in its local signature flavor. Developing ‘safe’ food streets whilst retaining all the charm of the local culture through training and capability building at the local level and awarding certification of recognition

Food Festivals: Celebrating the specialties of the region or the state to promote and preserve the culinary signature. Develop a calendar of regional and occasion based food festivals to culminate in an annual National level festival which is awarded and rewarded to showcase India’s food diversity

Food Trails: Storytelling to capture the history and origin of our numerous cuisines best captured whilst walking the street and experiencing the journey of aromas and flavors while the food transformation unfolds

While addressing the press conference, Pawan Agarwal, CEO, FSSAI said, “Local Indian food is amongst the best and most diverse in the world and there is a real need to promote and savour our rich culinary heritage, irrespective of any physical boundaries. India’s rich food heritage deserves a unique platform and this conclave attempts to combine various fragmented efforts in this field towards a common ground as to collectively promote and position India’s traditional creative and culinary knowledge soft power worldwide.”

Association with FSSAI for this conclave is part of YES BANK - YES Global Institute’s ongoing commitment to preserve and promote the diverse food culture of India. Mr. Rana Kapoor, MD & CEO, YES BANK and Chairman, YES Global Institute, said, “YES Global Institute is proud to be associated with The National Conclave on Indian Food Culture. This is a pioneering platform to encourage chefs, culinary entrepreneurs, food safety and policy experts and tourism professionals to work together to preserve and promote India’s rich culinary heritage. We believe that India’s traditional creative and culinary knowledge soft power can become a strong pillar of Brand India.”

As part of this initiative, a Knowledge Report collating all the data and key insights presented during the conclave would be created which will be instrumental in catalyzing preservation and promotion of India’s culinary heritage and tourism. Eventually a Digital Platform would be created to support and facilitate development of a robust ecosystem for India’s food culture and bring back its goodness.

The conclave witnessed stellar participation from senior officials from the central ministries of tourism and culture, state government officials from tourism, culture and food safety, various key organizations including Shri Ashish Bahuguna, Chairperson, FSSAI, Dr. Sunita Narain, Director-General, Centre for Science and Environment; Mr. Gautam Bhattacharya, Deputy Head of Mission - Embassy of Sweden; amongst other dignitaries with amicable support from several food thinkers/ strategists, writers/ food-bloggers, leading chefs, restaurateurs, hoteliers and entrepreneurs.

About Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI)

Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, FSSAI has been established under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 which is a consolidating statute related to food safety and regulation in India. FSSAI is responsible for protecting and promoting public health through the regulation and supervision of food safety. The authority has been created for laying down science based standards for articles of food and to regulate their manufacture, storage, distribution, sale and import to ensure availability of safe and wholesome food for human consumption. The FSSAI has its headquarters at New Delhi and has 6 regional offices located in Delhi, Guwahati, Mumbai, Kolkata, Cochin and Chennai.

Recently, FSSAI has launched a bouquet of initiatives for citizen guidance and behavioral change. These series of initiatives around safe and nutritious food aims to promote health and well-being for all citizens of India by ensuring that the food consumed at all the places is both safe and wholesome. These initiatives include Safe and nutritious food @Home, @School, @Workplace and @While Eating Out with a 360-degree approach to food safety and healthy nutrition to prevent food borne infections and diseases and for complete nutrition for citizens everywhere.

About YES Global Institute

YES Global Institute has been established by YES BANK as a practicing think-tank, to channel private sector capital towards India’s development. The Institute believes that India’s equitable economic growth will come by adopting a robust partnership between the public sector governance and policy-making and private sector innovation and entrepreneurship. National innovative financing for development leveraging the strong backbone of public sector investment frameworks with the full private sector engagement is needed for an equitable ecosystem. This Social Impact economy can emerge by a focus on India’s untapped Natural Capital, its rich heritage and handmade crafts Culture and its important Glocal position in the world economy.

YES Institute’s approach on taking these themes forward is to be a leading ecosystem player connecting capital to growth and development projects. This is done via its research and analysis, convening global and local leaders, launching market-based solutions for engaging private sector capital in India’s evolution. We recognize social entrepreneurs creating solutions and link them with impact investments with financial and social returns poised to be one of the biggest trends in the future economy.

About YES BANK

YES BANK, India’s fourth largest private sector Bank with a pan India presence across all 29 states and 7 Union Territories of India, headquartered in the Lower Parel Innovation District (LPID) of Mumbai, is the outcome of the professional & entrepreneurial commitment of its Founder Rana Kapoor and its Top Management team, to establish a high quality, customer centric, service driven, private Indian Bank catering to the future businesses of India.

YES BANK has adopted international best practices, the highest standards of service quality and operational excellence, and offers comprehensive banking and financial solutions to all its valued customers.

YES BANK has a knowledge driven approach to banking, and offers a superior customer experience for its retail, corporate and emerging corporate banking clients. YES BANK is steadily evolving as the Professionals’ Bank of India with the long term mission of “BUILDING THE FINEST QUALITY LARGE BANK OF THE WORLD IN INDIA”.